Black lives matter protest, day 2, Stroud

This was before many people had arrived. As you can see, the ground is marked with chalk crosses to ensure social distancing. By 1.30 the square was full, and phot journalist had gathered. At 1.30 pm we 'took a knee' in silence for eight minutes and forty seven seconds. It's a long time to kneel. It's an even longer time for a police officer to kneel on a man's neck when he is shouting 'I can't breathe'. Some passing cars tooted, or gave us the thumbs up.

After the kneeling ended, there were some impromptu and very moving speeches. A friend and I listened to the end, then went shopping in one of the few remaining shops. Then she went home again. It's getting boring queueing to get into dull shops.

This is a back blip, so if you skip over to Saturday 6th June, you'll see how things have moved on in Stroud.